Feb 9
2021/2/9 15:54:34 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
In Pictures, in his note to no.47: Heraldic Devices, C. Tolkien says: "Eight of these devices were used on the back of the cover of The J. R. R. Tolkien Calendar 1974 (those of Finwë and Eärendil in slightly different forms)". The "different forms" bit is clearly true of the Finwë one, for which the Calendar cover shows a variant design (reproduced also in Artist, p.194). But the Eärendil device looks identical on the Calendar cover and in Pictures, as far as I can tell. Does anyone know what C. Tolkien was referring to here, as regards the Eärendil device? A lapsus on his part or on mine?
Feb 9
2021/2/9 17:24:18 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
I could be mistaken but as far as I remember in
Artist p. 193 a version of Eärendil’s Heraldic Device is reproduced and it is different from the one that is found in
Pictures (The
Picture one has more white dots while the one reproduced in
Artist is characterized by some kind of white spikes inside the main girth) so maybe in the calendar we find the same variant that is present in
Artist. Anyway I’ll leave the matter to more experienced people also because unfortunately I do not own the 1974 calendar. I’m interested so please post if you find something out.
P.S. I would be interested in seeing a photo of the Calendar's back if you don't mind, I did not succeed in finding one on the internet
Feb 9
2021/2/9 17:43:32 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Aren't these the two versions?
Feb 9
2021/2/9 17:55:22 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Here's the back of the 1974 calendar
Here's Pictures:
Here's Artist & Illustrator:
Christina and Wayne say this in A&I (italics my additions)
Eärendil's device, as drawn on the front of an envelope [190 pictured above] posted to Tolkien on 13 December 1960, seems to incorporate a Silmaril and blazes like the star Eärendil became. On the back of the envelope [not pictured in A&I] is a rough, apparently earlier design for Eärendil's device, containing a six-pointed star with two long points reaching to the top and bottom corners of the lozenge and four shorter points extending to the centres of the four sides.
The calendar back and
Pictures image do appear to be the same to me, I think Christopher was referring to the device that appears in A&I.
Feb 9
2021/2/9 18:09:19 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Urulókë wrote:
The calendar back and Pictures image do appear to be the same to me, I think Christopher was referring to the device that appears in A&I.
Yes, the one in
Artist must have been the one he was thinking of (though of course that was a long way from publication at the time he wrote this).
Thanks for the help, all!
Feb 9
2021/2/9 19:00:11 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Feb 10
2021/2/10 22:05:35 (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time, London, Dublin, Lisbon, Casablanca, Monrovia
Thanks, Ugo, this is helpful!